Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American author, novelist, playwright, editor and rabbi.

In 1949, at the age of twenty, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit.

He was appointed director of LTF, Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.

After receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U.S. Army as a chaplain.

In 1959, he began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Har Zion Synagogue in Philadelphia.

In 1964, the Potoks moved to Brooklyn, where Chaim became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism and joined the faculty of the Teachers’ Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Potok wrote a sequel to The Chosen in 1969, entitled The Promise, which details the issues of the value and identity between Orthodox and Hasidic Jews.

In 1972, he published My Name is Asher Lev, the story of a boy struggling with his relationship with his parents, religion and his desire to be an artist.

The film featured Rod Steiger, Barry Miller, Maximilian Schell and Robby Benson.

It also became an Off-Broadway musical and was adapted as a stage play by Aaron Posner in collaboration with Potok, which premiered at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia in 1999.

Potok cited James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ernest Hemingway, and S. Y. Agnon as his chief literary influences.

[20] The university houses a collection of Potok correspondence, writings, lectures, sermons, article clippings, memorabilia and fan mail.

One of his admirers was Elie Wiesel, who wrote to Potok saying he had read all his books "with fervor and friendship".